Ra'anana men, R-G women victorious

In the finals of the annual National trips competition last weekend, Ramat Gan win in the women's final and Ra'anana in the men's final.

The finals of the annual National trips competition was played last weekend at the Ra'anana club with the honors being shared once again - Ra'anana took the men's title, while for the women the top honors went to Ramat Gan.

The women's final was between Ramat Gan's Riri Meirav, Mazal Reuven and Tiki Solomon, who were up against Ra'anana's Denny Galland, Ruth Kavalsky and Andrea Armist. The final score of 11-8 over 15 ends provides clear indication of the tight contest fought between the sides, where accurate all-round bowling rarely allowed for more than a single shot to be scored at each end.

The last end started with Ramat Gan leading 9-8. Galland drew a toucher onto the jack to level the score at 9-all, which would have entailed an extra end being played. But Ramat Gan skip Meirav had her shot of the day when she very deftly hit Galland's toucher and moved the jack toward the ditch to hold the shot one meter away. With her last bowl Meirav drew even closer to the jack to hold two winning shots, which Galland failed to better. The Ramat Gan trio, however, had previously shown challenging form in their semifinal when they accounted for Kiryat Ono's international star, Ruthie Gilor, skipping for Tova Melockier and Tzvia Landenberg, with an impressive 18-9 win.

In the other semifinal Galland's trio had edged out Ramat Gan's Dalia Schneider, Sari Fridman and Nira Chasid 16-15.

The men's final, for a change, saw a Ramat Hasharon team chasing the title - the threesome of Zachi Katalon, Eran Karni and Arik Balin up against Ra'anana's Colin Silberstein, Yair Bekier and Israel Meushar. Katalon's team had done exceptionally well in their morning semifinal when they outplayed the favored side of Ramat Gan's Itzik Sher, Zvi Bekier and Arieh Kremer to the tune of 19-7. But they were not able to contain Silberstein's side when they went down 18-10. A critical loss of two successive fives at the 6th and 7th ends sealed the trio's fate.

Worthy of mention was the semifinal in which Colin Silberstein skipped his side up against his father Gordon, playing with Lawrence Hurwitz and Selwyn Hare. The younger Silberstein, 45, a member of Israel's international team, found his 30-year-old opponent no walkover. The scores were level at 12-all with two ends to play, and in anybody's game it was the younger generation who came through with a single shot 15-14 win.